Housing market slowing - unless you're a first time buyer

Posted by Dan Wilson Craw1632.20sc on August 19, 2014

Is house price inflation starting to slow? Across the whole market, it would seem so, with the Office for National Statistics finding inflation fell from 10.4% in May to 10.2% in June. That is still well above anything that's remotely healthy - and house prices were already historically expensive, even after the 2008 crash.

But first time buyers have it particularly bad. If you want to buy a house, prices are now 12 percent higher than they were a year ago (in May inflation was running at 11.3%). For people who already own a house and want to move, they are seeing a slowdown - from 10% to 9.5%.

The average private renter effectively spends two days every week working to pay off their landlord’s mortgage, so with prices rising at this rate fewer renters will ever escape this trap.

The only real solution is to build many more homes to bring supply back in line with demand - and Generation Rent has devised a funding model by which new build houses can be shielded from the inflationary effects of the wider market.

But the million houses we need will take years to build. Those of us who are stuck with the insecure private rented sector for the foreseeable future need better rights and the ability to call the place we live a home. Ultimately, better private renting should make the sector a real alternative to ownership - and the monthly house price indices will stop giving us palpitations.